The game has an outstanding art direction and it's thrilling to see just how well the Next Level design team translated the animated style of the NES version's gigantic sprites to fully 3D models that animate with the same classic "pop" motion. The darkened arena surrounding the ring bristles with life, and we're sure we caught a glimpse of a joke or two in the sea of the crowd. The characters lip sync all their dialogue, of which there's a ton of well-acted sound bites. Doc Louis is incredibly charming as your ringside coach and offers the same level of advice, both useful and useless, all voice acted. He even hilariously asks you to join the Nintendo Fun Club before correcting himself, advertising Club Nintendo instead.

Even though the game's sticking to the classic NES formula, the team's adding a bit of continuity to the Wii experience: before the fights players are offered a bit of character backstory for each of the fighters through detailed, non-animating comic book-style cutscenes.

The team's clearly a fan of what makes Punch-Out!! such a favorite in the Nintendo line-up, and is sparing no expense to offer cool and funny nods to the series and the publisher. King Hippo, for example, drops his trunks and shows off his boxers patterend with Mario stars.

A little background: I'm a huge Punch-Out!! fan so I'm already familiar with the techniques involved in playing the game, and jumping into Punch-Out!! on the Wii was definitely second nature. For the first two fights I took the controls as they were handed to me: Wii Remote/nunchuk combination. Though I was reluctant to test the motion controls, I gave them a shot. And I actually wasn't disappointed. The motion sensing is extremely responsive, and it's simply used for right hand/left hand punches – it's not trying to recognize direction or strength. It's more a replacement for the button presses, to give players a more tactile sensation when pounding on the opponent. The buttons on the Wii controllers were used to trigger the power hits that'll send your opponent sprawling.

Of course, after two fights I disconnected the nunchuk to continue the Circuit: the game immediately switched to "Classic NES" mode on the fly: holding the controller like an NES controller, the game is a spot-on map to the original Punch-Out!!: left/right punches on the 1 and 2 buttons, left/right dodge on the left and right of the D-pad, and Super Punch on the A. To hit high, push up on the D-pad; to hit low, simply hit the punch buttons without a direction. To duck, it's a simple push down on the D-pad.

And that's all you need to win the fights. The characters will telegraph their moves before they swing, so it's up to you to watch the exaggerated movements and respond accordingly: some moves need to be dodged, some need to be ducked, and others need to be countered before their thrown. You might take a few hits learning the patterns, but that's half the challenge in understanding how to be a Punch-Out!! champ.

Obviously being an existing fan of the Punch-Out!! series I much preferred the direct "Classic NES" way, but I can definitely see the appeal for motion controls for those not practiced in Punch-Out!! already. The team offered a "no comment" when asked about Balance Board support , but according to Nintendo it's in there – whether it works and adds to the fun, we'll have to wait until we experience it in action in the final revision. The team offered a flat "no" when asked about Motion Plus support -- it's a peripheral that's not suited for the pattern recognition style of game that Punch-Out!! is.

We also asked the team what, of all the characters in the Punch-Out franchise, is their favorite. While Piston Honda and Soda Popinsky were mentioned by the two Japanese producers, both Next Level members mentioned Doc Louis as their overwhelming choice. They made note that they have huge plans for the character, but stopped short of saying that he's a playable fighter.

We've seen a menu that talks about a Head to Head mode as well as a Gallery, so there's clearly more to the game than this short four-fight demo offers.

Expect a fresher take on Punch-Out!! in the coming weeks as Next Level and Nintendo finish up the final product.